Babysitter Kyp
by jansonpls
Summary: Kyp Durron faces his biggest challenge yet babysitting a five year old Ben Skywalker.


*I don't own Kyp

*But I own Ben!

*in a fan girl way

*thank you

----

Kyp stared at Luke with an expression that reminded him faintly of horror. Or perhaps shock, of the "Are you serious?" kind. Kyp's next words confirmed this.

"Are you serious?"

Luke smiled in what he judged to be a reassuring manner. "It'll just be for a few hours. I wouldn't ask, but Jacen and Danni are off-planet, and Tahiri's busy somewhere with Tekli, and of course Mara's away just now." And there were no convenient Yuuzhan Vong warriors hanging around, Luke added silently.

"But- but- me? I mean, I like the kid, but have you really thought this through? You're going to trust me with your only child?"

"I'll be back as soon as I can. Ben! Come on, down from the boras!"

"Er…" 

"Kyp!" Ben ran to Kyp as soon as he reached the ground and tried to both hug and flatten him at the same time.

"Right." Kyp tried in vain to straighten his cloak. "How old is he again?"

"Five, now."

"So no Corellian ale, spice, or gambling then?" Kyp tried to inject some humour into this apparently hopeless situation.

"Five and a half!" Ben corrected his father.

"Five and a half? Wow, all grown up huh? Better teach you sabacc, kid, or else where'll you get to in this world?"

Ben giggled, and Luke gave Kyp a grateful look. "I'll be back by tomorrow. Definitely."

The horror returned to Kyp's face and he shouted at Luke's retreating back. "You said a few hours!"

--

Kyp held firmly onto Ben's hand as he led him into his house. In the three years of living on Zonama Sekot, Kyp had eventually managed to get himself a decent size of living quarters, but he had a feeling this just meant more destruction on Ben's part.

"So… what do you want to do, Ben?"

The boy appeared to think about this for a minute, a look of deep concentration on his face. Kyp waited patiently for an answer before realizing, just moments too late, what Ben was actually doing.

"Ben, no!" Kyp ducked as Ben dropped a full glass of water on him, but this did nothing other than allow more water to soak into his robes. Ben giggled.

"Kyp's wet! Wet Kyp!"

Kyp sighed. Obviously, everyone else on the planet conspired to get a detailed itinerary of Luke and Mara's off-world jaunts, and planned their own lives around them. He wondered vaguely why he had been left out this loop and made a mental note to question Tahiri at some point.

"Look, kid, I guess we'll start with the Force. There are some things you can do with it, and some things you can't, and one thing you most definitely can't use the Force for is to drop glasses of water on your babysitters. Especially if they're stronger than you." While telling Ben this, Kyp had carefully taken all the water molecules from his robes, moved them back into the glass, lifted it into the air and poured it over Ben.

The boy just stared at him gleefully. Kyp glanced up and saw that something was keeping the water in the glass. He sighed again and put the glass down on the counter.

"I guess you can't use the Force to pour glasses of water over Vader's grandkids, either…"

Ben giggled his annoying giggle again, and then calmed down. "What should I use the Force for, then?"

"Hm…" Kyp contemplated this for a second. "Repairing machines and stuff."

"On Zonama?"

"Good point. Um… you know, I'm not the best person to ask about Force philosophy. Go speak to cousin Jacen about that, or your dad…"

"…Can I go climb boras now?"

"No! Eh… sure. Let's go."

---

Kyp leaned back against a boras and yawned. A few feet away, Ben was happy in his own little world, scaling the tallest boras he could find. Kyp would be able to sense if he got in any trouble, so he slid down to sit on the soft grass, closed his eyes and leaned back again. Ah, this clearing. Memories, memories… Some good, some bad, but hey – that was life, right?

Something suddenly snapped Kyp out of his reverie. With a quick glance round, he realized it wasn't so much something, as a lack thereof. He groaned and stood up. "Vapin' kid… Ben! Where in Sith's name have you gone?"

"Not Sith!" cried an indignant, but distant, voice. 

Reaching out, Kyp found Ben further away than his voice had suggested. He swore under his breath and ran quickly towards him, a good half-kilometer through the tampasi to another, smaller clearing. He stopped and leaned against a boras for support, breathing heavily. "Vapin' kid," he repeated, much to Ben's delight, resulting in another giggle. "Guess I'm not as fit as I…"

His voice trailed off as he looked up. There was Ben, standing facing Kyp in the middle of the clearing, grasping a stick as a mock lightsabre. And beside him, also holding a stick for a similar purpose, was a Yuuzhan Vong child.

Kyp stared at both boys for a minute. He'd never seen a Yuuzhan Vong child before; he'd never thought like that. All those years fighting the warriors; to realize they must have had kids too. Kyp eyed the boy warily, wondering vaguely how old he was; before or after the war?

"He's Dian Lah, friend." Ben giggled again; he knew, despite his young age, how the Yuuzhan Vong would unsettle Kyp. "Dian, that's Kyp Dur-Dir-Dar- ah, Kyp."

"Durron," supplied Kyp helpfully, then shook his head. 

Dian Lah frowned slightly, then grinned. "Ah, yes. I heard of you… Kyp's Dozen!"

"Er…" Kyp stared blankly at the boy. "Er, yes… yes… The Dozen… What?"

"My father piloted a coralskipper against you once. Said you were good."

Kyp found this conversation was getting far too surreal for him, so he decided to break it off. "Er, Ben, I think we better get back. Your dad said he'd be back in a few hours and it's…" Kyp glanced at his wrist-chrono. "It's been a whole half hour. Eh. Come on."

"But we're dueling!"

"Lightsabres and amphistaffs," Dian added.

"Sticks," Kyp corrected flippantly, then realized what other meaning the word held, and smiled briefly. Ah, Sticks.

"'Sabres and 'staffs!" Ben yelled vehemently, holding his stick up at Kyp threateningly.

Kyp stared at it and contemplated slicing it in half with his own, decidedly more real, lightsabre. Ah, that would teach the kid. But he figured Luke might have something to say if he did, so he thought it best not to. 

"I must leave now anyway, Ben. My family want me back in time for the evening meal," Dian told his younger friend.

"Aw, OK. Duel tomorrow?"

Dian grinned and nodded. "Yes, tomorrow." He turned and ran back into the tampasi at the south, still holding his stick.

Kyp looked from the rustled leaves to Ben, who was still holding his stick up and glaring at him. Deciding that things really couldn't get any more surreal, and that he would wake up in a few seconds, perhaps with a hangover, but definitely in his own warm bed, he picked up a stick.

Ben's eyes lit up. "Duel!"

"Heh…" Kyp pinched himself, and it hurt. He was still standing in a clearing, holding a stick, about to duel a five-year-old. Stang.

Suddenly Ben rushed him, stabbing his stick towards Kyp's stomach. Kyp parried it in surprise, wondering vaguely why he hadn't sense Ben's attack through the Force. He reached out, parrying Ben's surprisingly strong slashes, and realized that Ben was hiding himself, closing his mind to Kyp.

Kyp stared at the boy with a newfound yet vague admiration, which was quickly replaced by irritation as Ben feinted to the left, then hit Kyp's leg. Hard. 

"You- argh, vapin' kid!" For a moment, he raised his stick to attack, then realized once again that his foe was a five-year-old child. And a Skywalker, which was always worth something. Instead, he threw the stick aside.

"I won!" Ben giggled yet again, and waved his "sabre" at Kyp defiantly. "You lost!"

"I forfeited."

"Lost," insisted Ben.

"Look, I – argh. Whatever. Vapin' kid. Come on, we're going back."

All the way back, Kyp had to endure Ben's childish taunts and wondered if, maybe, slicing the stick with his sabre would be worth facing Luke Skywalker's wrath for. Which led to wonderings about whether Luke actually had "wrath", and what he actually would do to Kyp. While finding out did seem strangely compelling, Kyp decided to simply endure Ben's chant of "You lost! You lost!"

Light points to the rogue Jedi for patience, he thought ruefully.

--

"Hungry!"

"Nngh… what?" Kyp looked up blearily. It was morning; Luke hadn't kept to his original promise. Last night had been one that Kyp would rather forget and, he realized, he had. "How much did I drink…" Reaching up, he realized that his head didn't hurt because of a hangover; rather, a large bump on the back of his head was the culprit.

He opened his mouth to question Ben, shut it, opened it again to shout at Ben, then shut it again. Whatever. 

"HUNGRY!"

"Stang, Ben, I'll be there in a second." He stood up, swayed, and sat down quickly. Looking round, he saw that everything was in reasonable order. So, Ben didn't totally wreck the place. 

"Kyp make breakfast now!"

"Uh, you don't want me making breakfast… Luke would never forgive me. Um, have some fruit." Kyp stood up again, walked over to his makeshift kitchen, and handed Ben a piece of fruit. Then he looked at Ben again.

"Stang."

Ben stood, grinning at Kyp and getting very sticky with fruit juice. But that wasn't the problem. The spiked hair, black face paint and torn clothing, however, was.

"Ben, did you become a punk overnight?"

"Yuuzhan Vong warrior!"

Kyp started to nod, changed his mind and shook his head. "Ben, you're not Vong."

"Yuuzhan Vong!"

"Yuuzhan Vong, whatever, you're not that. You're Jedi, um, and five. And stang, your dad is NOT going to be happy about those clothes…"

Kyp closed his eyes and counted to ten. Maybe, when he opened them again, Ben would be standing there looking the same as yesterday. Even better, maybe he would be gone, it would all have been a dream, and Kyp could get back to that potential hangover.

Nope.

"Can I go duel Dian again now?"

"No. I'm going to go and get you some clothes from home, then you're going to get changed, and we're going to sit and play some nice, friendly sabacc."

"Duel!"

"Argh, no, no vapin' duels! Come on, we're going back to your house…"

"But…" Ben had to run to catch up to Kyp, who was walking quickly in the direction of the Skywalkers' home. "But Dad put a lock on, you can't get in, only he can."

Kyp laughed shortly. "I don't think a lock is going to be a problem for me."

--

The lock was a problem.

"Stang," Kyp swore, as the computer electrocuted him yet again for getting the wrong code. He was no slicer. Stang, this kind of security would take Anakin Solo to crack, and since Kyp didn't have any handy way to contact dead Jedi, he was stuck.

"I told you!" Ben's voice was full of pride at his dad's ingenuity.

"Don't know what you're so happy about, it's you who'll be in trouble for all this."

"No, you! You're the babysitter, you're in trouble!"

And yes, of course, it would be Kyp. He vaguely wondered exactly how powerful Luke had been back during his little dark side jaunt, doubled his estimation, and got a headache. 

He tried to think for a minute. Was there anyone on Sekot who might be able to get in? No one with the slicing skills… And no one who would know the code anyway. He looked up at the door. 

"Ben," he started, carefully, "how solid do you think that is?"

"Uh…"

"And do you know where we can get a replacement?" Kyp's lightsabre flew to his hand and the violet-silver blade snap-hissed its way into existence.

"No sabre! No sabre!"

Kyp sighed. No. The only thing worse than letting Luke's child transform himself into a Yuuzhan Vong warrior-child would be to totally wreck his house and security system. Whether this actually was worse, he wasn't entirely sure, but he didn't think either was really an option.

He shut the blade off and returned the sabre to his belt. "Ben, how can we get in? You know what we need? A slicer. Or a good substitute."

"Code!"

Kyp sighed again. "Well, of course we could do with the vapin' code, but we don't HAVE it, do we?"

He stopped. The door was open, and Ben was standing inside, grinning at him.

"You know the code?"

"Yeah, code!"

"You… you knew the vapin' code? The whole time?"

Ben shrugged and grinned again.

"Stang, kid, I spent over ten years trying to redeem myself and you're determined to make me fall again, aren't you."

Ben looked at him, puzzled for a second, then ran into his room to get changed.

Kyp collapsed into a chair, exhausted with it all. This was a test Luke had set him, he was sure of it. Look after Ben for a day, let's see how long it takes you to go to the dark side. He wondered vaguely what the safe bet was. Lando. Lando was involved in this somehow.

He looked up suddenly as he heard footsteps outside and sensed a strong presence. "Sithspit," he whispered to himself.

Someone walked in and stopped suddenly as they saw Kyp. "Kyp Durron."

Kyp tried to smile reassuringly, but it came out as a grimace. "Mara."

"I see you broke into my house. Nice."

"Ah, sarcasm never got anyone anywhere. Ben's in his room."

"What?" Mara suddenly looked alarmed. "You were looking after Ben?"

"Luke had to go off-world for a day or something, so yeah."

"I know that, he's at the Academy, but.. he asked you? To look after our only child? Is he serious?"

Kyp grinned ruefully. "That's what I said."

Mara narrowed her eyes and glared at Kyp. "If you've hurt him in any way…"

Kyp rubbed the back of his head. "More a case of the other way round. He's fine. Er, a bit… warrior-y… but fine."

"What- forget it. I don't want to know."

"Good call, Mara, good call. Well. I guess I'll be going. Things to, uh, do, people to see… you know…"

Kyp quickly left the house, ignoring Mara's questioning voice. Free, he thought, free at last… Vapin' Skywalkers. 

Finally, time for that hangover. 


End file.
